Well first of all, the revie... burial was quite good, one of my fave ZP's of the past few months. And then I fully agree that these new consoles are out too early as development teams can't seem to make good games in time for the console's releases. Then again, as a member of the PC gaming master race it's not like I care a whole lot, but I'm pretty sure at least some ppl who own a Ps4 or XBone are less than thrilled about the current games for their console.

TizzytheTormentor:Knack (like Killzone: Shadowfall) feels like a rushed tech demo that wants to look nice and show off its tech, but it falls short of being a good game.

Hopefully Infamous Second Son isn't like this and its actually a fun game.

this gens killzone is the first one ive not hated, but I agree that infamous second son looks good and I want it to be fun.I was going to complain he chose the obviously shit exclusive but then I reliased that he didnt have much choice barring a couple of indie titles.

First review of the new year and already we may have a contender for the Bottom 5 list

Seeing as it was a 2013 release, I don't think so.

Anyway, Knack is terrible, but it's terrible is an exceedingly bland way. It's not terrible in a Ride to Hell: Retribution or Aliens: Colonial Marines way. It's just one big swing and a miss - kind of like Knack's combat system... (zing).

Join the club. I still don't understand the mess about who OWNS Crash Bandicoot now. Does Naughty Dog think they're too "mature" for it now?

Um...why are you blaming Naughty Dog? While they created Crash, they've never owned the rights to it. It's always been owned by Universal Interactive Studios, which later turned into Vivendi and then merged with Activision. Just because a developer makes a game, it doesn't mean they own the rights to it unless they themselves publish the game. Otherwise all the rights to the IP (characters, music, etc) belong to the company that published the game. That's why Microsoft still has Halo and Bungie didn't take it with them, Bungie didn't own the rights to the game. Naughty Dog had no choice but to leave Crash because they never owned the rights and went with Sony to make Jak and Daxter. Plus, after Crash Team Racing, the Naughty Dog team that all worked on the Crash games said they had no more ideas and didn't want to milk the franchise to death, they basically wanted to work on something else and then they made a gem with Jak and Daxter.

Hopefully Infamous Second Son isn't like this and its actually a fun game.

Sucker Punch are pretty good at making games I say, so I say there is hope for it. Infamous 1 and 2 were great, and they already aren't making a mistake of bringing back the main character from 1 and 2 since he's officially dead according and isn't coming back, which is something Yahtzee said he'd be pissed if they did given how the good ending of Infamous 2 was.

OT: Sadly I was intrigued by Knack, but oh well not all are the shining gems I guess. Maybe we'll see more platformers from first party Sony Devs soon. *cough*Ape Escape 4*cough*

If this was a game that centered around something like The Blob meets Katamari Damacy I could have been all right with this, playing as some kind of eldritch horror for most of the narrative and whatnot, but from what I've seen, 'letdown' is not a strong enough word for something that could have been good with its concepts but so crap in its execution.

randomthefox:Can't think of a single game console that wouldn't have benefited from delaying its launch for about a year is fucking right.

But then the bulk of games for the consoles would be delayed for another year after that. It's not like delaying the console would suddenly make developers work on titles for it, and it would magically launch with a huge library of quality games.

The console really has to be released first for developers to start working on it, outside of the few that will do launch titles. It's just the nature of the beast. If you delay the launch, developers will just delay their development and keep developing for the consoles that are actually out. Then there's the competitive aspect. If your competition has a brand new console, and you're still shipping a 7-year old one, then that makes you look bad.

Strange Yahtzee did some gushing about Crash Bandicoot. Can't remember what review it was (Rayman Origins?) and my memory might be sketchy, but he showed Crash Bandicoot when talking about how 3D platformers handled like ass. Not that I mind him liking Crash Bandicoot, as I too remember when I was a bright eyed young child who wondered "Crash, why are you looking at that boar like that?".

Shame about Knack though. Not like I was going to be chomping at the bit to get it, but it's good to have more GOOD light-hearted AAA games for kids/families (that aren't Nindendo). Seems to be a dying art these days compared to when I was a whelp. Oh we still have them, but they've certainly been nudged aside. Knack was the only game I was remotely interested in at PS4 launch, so I guess that's that for now.

You really do have to feel sad for kids whose parents were so uninformed that they went and got whatever console is newest. This may be the worst console generation, but its start isn't much worse than the 6th generation's. The Wii U got a 3D Mario game and is getting Smash Bros only half a year after the Gamecube did, but the Wii U now had 2 and now has another prospective other 2 co-op games coming out, not to mention a Skylanders game that's as good as today's acclaimed cartoons. But despite all that, it still sold something like 1 million compared to 3 and 4 million sold of the other newest consoles.

I chalk it up to marketing. The PS4 had plenty of it all over the internet starting from the DRM-bashing E3 and the ads "Greatness Awaits" and "Perfect Day". But in December, the Xbox One got ads on all sorts of TV channels and giveaways every which-way: Bing, McDonalds, and even here on The Escapist. As for Wii U, I've only seen an ad or 2 on children's cartoon channels (that I was watching with my young cousins).

I still enjoyed the gameplay though. Simple and repetitive, absolutely. But for some reason this one clicked with me. A lot of people loved Gravity Rush on the Vita. That was simple and repetitive too (just sky kick things a whole bunch) but I hated that one. Of course, I can think of a lot of complaints for that too, like how the enemies frequently dodged out of the way at the last second no matter how much you leveled up. And how you'd keep flying off into the distance after you missed so you had to stop and turn the camera all the way back around to get another go (which usually resulted in you getting hit by some attack you couldn't see coming). And how the game actually had a lot of other abilities to it but it just kept resorting to missions where you kick shit and then kick more shit. If you want to use any of the other abilities in the game you have to go to the optional side missions.

I dunno, I guess Knack for me was simple and repetitive done right. Although I would like to see a sequel where they give Knack more things to do than just punch people and get more into the story of all this relic based stuff. I mean, again, yay for the professor and all, but fuck him, the relic stuff would have way more interesting.

Also I only remember one framerate drop when I was playing it, and it was when I was picking up a lot of piles at wood at once. It wasn't during combat so it didn't fuck me over and thus I didn't care.

Oh and also it was weird how Knack wouldn't or couldn't talk until he'd picked up a few relics. At the start of every chapter when he had to start over as his smallest form to fit in the plane, he never talked. It was only after playing a bit and getting bigger that he'd start talking again. ...Nothing else about that really, I just thought it was weird.

Raggedstar:Shame about Knack though. Not like I was going to be chomping at the bit to get it, but it's good to have more GOOD light-hearted AAA games for kids/families (that aren't Nindendo). Seems to be a dying art these days compared to when I was a whelp. Oh we still have them, but they've certainly been nudged aside. Knack was the only game I was remotely interested in at PS4 launch, so I guess that's that for now.

It will be on PS+ someday. And since most people are going to have it now as it's mandatory for online play, a lot of people such as yourself can just wait and play it then.

HAHA. The last line got me. Not gonna write up anything in limewrick again? Maybe you'll get paid more!Yes, I had to look up "dross". Did you mean metal impurities?Thanks for making me not want new gen consoles.

Raggedstar:Shame about Knack though. Not like I was going to be chomping at the bit to get it, but it's good to have more GOOD light-hearted AAA games for kids/families (that aren't Nindendo). Seems to be a dying art these days compared to when I was a whelp. Oh we still have them, but they've certainly been nudged aside. Knack was the only game I was remotely interested in at PS4 launch, so I guess that's that for now.

It will be on PS+ someday. And since most people are going to have it now as it's mandatory for online play, a lot of people such as yourself can just wait and play it then.

Except, it's really no good for kids, either. That was my hope for it - that would be a kid-friendly, yet engaging enough game for adults to enjoy. But it fails at both. Unless, of course, you want your kids to cry because of the frustrating gameplay.

Also, while the graphics are cartoony and colorful, the content is still actually quite violent, and the violence isn't really justified in the story. So, you may as well have them play a bloodier fighter if you aren't bothered by them playing violent games. If you don't want them playing violent games, then this isn't suitable either.

It just baffles me who this is supposed to be for. It could have been a casual, fun game, but it's tedious and very difficult at some points. And if people want a more difficult, challenging game, there are so many more with better pay-off out there. It doesn't even work as a graphics demo for a new console, as the graphics don't even look very good.

It's really revolutionary that a character becomes less destructible in cut scenes. I'm far more used to seeing a character take bullets like a bag of sand in the game and then suddenly have to freeze because somebody points a gun at them in a cutscene.

I still don't see why everyone sees this game as just god awful. It's not great by any means but it's not god fucking awful. If only Cerny was actually working on the game, not just putting his name on it, saying he's with it, and spending all his time elsewhere doing other things it could have been great, but now it's only mediocre.

klaynexas3:I still don't see why everyone sees this game as just god awful. It's not great by any means but it's not god fucking awful. If only Cerny was actually working on the game, not just putting his name on it, saying he's with it, and spending all his time elsewhere doing other things it could have been great, but now it's only mediocre.

Remeber, the mentality of people when they see a score at the end of a review nowadays is, "unless it is 80-100 then the game is absolutely terrible and has no redeeming qualities."That's been growing even more apparent through the last year and a half I say. Now I'm not saying that Knack is the best thing since sliced bread, it has many many flaws, but it was still enjoyable and not the absolute worst as some people have said. Heck the first Crash Bandicoot had it's problems, and they improved on them in 2 and beyond. I can see that if Sony were to actually work more on the franchise then it can turn into something amazing, of course like you said it would help if Mark Cerny was actually part of the game's development other than in name. XD

themilo504:It's a shame that going by most reviews this game isn't very good since it looked very interesting, it could have been the first game to make it on my reasons I might get a next gen console list.

Eh for what it's worth I've enjoyed playing it, as Yahtzee said it's very similar to Crash Bandicoot, that said considering how many reviewers don't like it I'd say check it out in store before making your own choice, it seems to be one of those love or hate games.I think Yahtzee is just complaining for the sake of complaining.

This game was a disappointment to me. I was encouraged to see a new console being launched with a platformer again, it stood out among the boring beigeness of the AAA offerings but it turned out to be just as boring and beige and linear as they were. Reminds me of my dismay last gen when Lair sucked, dooming Sixaxis games and dragon-flying games with one fell swoop. (And it wasn't the tilt controls that messed up that game, it was shit all on its own.)

Oh, by the way, language belongs to the people who speak it. Maybe it's intended to be pronounced Newtella, but 50/50 people (at least) who I've heard use the word pronounced it Nut-ella which kinda makes that the right way.

LordTerminal:Thank you Yahtzee for once again reminding me why I currently have no need to buy a PS4 right now. Knack is probably my biggest disappointment of 2013. I hate, hate, HATE when interesting ideas are wasted on badly made games. That's what really needs remakes nowadays: badly made games with unique ideas being wasted due to incompetent dev teams.

Piecewise:I don't see why anyone is surprised; knack and just about everything on the Current gen console line up is shit. Why anyone would ever buy one of these overpriced VCRs now, rather then in a year or two once they're on sale and have some decent games, is beyond me.

Then again, the Wii U has been out for a year and damn if I'm not hard up to think of a game it has that I want to play.

Maybe Wonderful 101? That new Smash bros when it comes out with it's inevitable half dozen fox clones and disappointing new additions?

eh.

::headdesk:: 1, yes you should try Wonderful 101. It's not great but it's still pretty good. 2. Disappointing new additions? Yeah thanks for reminding me why I can't stand the fighting game community: because they can't be pleased with whatever characters become playable in a fighting game. 3. Half dozen Fox clones? So far only one clone has been confirmed. I know it's likely inevitable there's more but you're implying that everyone plays like Fox?

Now you're reminding me why I can't take criticism anymore: Because it's more whining than actual criticism. And that goes for everyone who's been attacking Nintendo lately. Maybe you shouldn't play video games at all anymore if you have to fabricate BS like that.